AN: I do not own Silent Hill nor do I own Kingdom Hearts. Konami, Disney, and Square Enix hold all copyrights.
The idea behind this was something that originated with AStyleAllMyOwn, and the outline was co-written with her for a movie we were going to create. I've adapted that and expanded it into this. Multi-chaptered, though I can't tell you how long it's going to be.
konami-fanman: Thank you for the lovely review. I apologize for how late this is. I would like to be able to say that it won't be long before the next chapter is out – I really want to finish this! – but I'm afraid of making promises I don't keep.
Matheson and Levin. It was where everything had started – the dream, the blackout, his first encounter with Sora – and yet it felt incredibly surreal to be back at the homey bed-and-breakfast.
Gazing up at the picture-perfect house, Riku could feel himself slowly step forward as he walked toward the front steps. It was as if someone had taken a slice of world, cut deftly along the edges of property, and had planted down a swatch of normality inside the hell that was the rest of Silent Hill. Rusty grates turned to unmarred road, only to shift back again once the boundary was past. Rotted trees and barren land sudden became a lush green lawn, dotted with bright yellow and white flowers.
The houses on either side were gutted and burned, charred walls reaching up toward the sky like skeletal fingers groping for the sun. Wedged in between was the white-washed home with their car still parked in the driveway.
Riku walked up to it and pressed his hands against the driver's side door. There was nothing strange inside, though when he tried to pull the door open it wouldn't give. Not that getting inside would have been much help; the tires had been slashed, leaving the vehicle resting on the bent rims.
So much for an easy way out of here, he thought with a sigh. He wasn't sure where he would have gone, or what help the car would have been – the roads would never have held its weight and nevermind the fact that he didn't have the keys – but the thought of being able to drive away would have been incredibly comforting.
Inside. Inside. I have to go inside. Straightening, the silver-haired man glanced over at the front door of the house, fear and anxiety knotting his stomach. It was open, waving ever so slightly from a breeze he couldn't feel. That's where it all began… that's where it'll all end.
The picture that the strange girl had given him was tucked safely inside his pocket, but he could still see the message that had been scrawled in hasty writing on its back. Written in the same red ink ( blood? ) as the previous one, all it said was Where did it all start?.
That was a good question, though a better one was 'what was it?' The nightmare that he was currently living in, the twisted world that Silent Hill had become… or the events of three years ago when Kingdom Hearts had first been threatened by the heartless? Both were events of interest, to him and to those who seemed to be keeping him here.
Heading back to the Islands didn't seem exactly possible at the moment, though. That left the house, as reluctant as he was to enter it.
Bracing himself, Riku took a deep breath before gently pushing in the already-open door. It swung easily and silently, revealing the dark interior. The floor, stones squares of various sizes in varying shades of green and red, had a slightly faded look to it and, with one step, he realized it was dust. The lights wouldn't turn on when he flicked the lights and he sighed – no lights. No electricity either, most likely.
Lovely.
Pressing the button on the top of the flashlight, Riku slowly scanned it across the room to see what he was dealing with. Other than the dust and the feeling that no one had actually been in this building for quite some time now, nothing seemed to have changed from when they first checked in. The same horrifically ugly painting of a vase with a purple flower was still hanging on the wall, the same kitschy knick-knacks were lined up along the mantel in the den, and the same corny cornflower-patterned dishes were on the table.
Start back at the beginning… Nodding doubtfully, Riku glanced at the stairs before heading toward them. The hallway above loomed ominously, a dark and gaping mouth that leered threatening at him, but he had no choice. Steeling himself, he gripped the rail tightly as slowly ascended.
All the doors were shut and, as he quickly found out, locked. Rattling the knob to his room in frustration, Riku thumped his fist against the wooden door before sighing. "God… freakin'…"
He trailed off as he glanced to the side. Light was peeking out from under one of the doors, the door to Roxas' room. "The beginning," the silver-haired man murmured before stepping over to it. Gingerly touching it, the door swung open before he even had a chance to try the knob and a brilliant white light poured out. Lifting a hand up to cover his eyes, he narrowed them as he was slowly blinded and swallowed up whole.
It faded after a moment and he lowered his hand, feeling bewildered. Through the doorway was a beach, clear blue water lapping at the crystalline sand. Several white wisps graced the sky, the only mar to an otherwise beautiful day. In the background he could hear the caw of some lazily floating seagulls and the rustling of the leaves of several palm trees.
Home. He reached out, feeling the breeze tickle his palm and the warmth play over the back of his hand. "This is real," he said, amazement evident in his tone. "This is… this is real…"
The beach was beckoning through the open door and after a moment Riku stepped through. It spread out before him and, as he turned around, the door shimmered and disappeared, leaving him stranded on the beach. "No, no," he said, stepping back clumsily over the sand – as peaceful as the place seemed he knew that there was some catch waiting around the corner. "No, please, come back. I don't want to be stuck here."
There was a crackle, a ripple, and he hesitantly twisted about to look. There were three figures on the beach, shifting and waving in the light. As he stepped closer he could see that they were only half there, see-through images with pieces missing as they laughed and talked.
Silver hair, red hair, blond hair… "And you're just as lazy as he is!"
"Heh. So you noticed."
The girl laughed and leaned back, arms clasped behind her back before she leaned forward and clapped her hands together. The boy with silver hair ( was that him? Had he ever looked like that? ) looked at her with an expression of distrust with a hint of boredom as she added: "Okay, we'll finish it together! I'll race you."
"Huh?" It was the blond who spoke but as Riku stopped next to him he knew the voice didn't match with his face. The boy sitting up, staring off in confusion, was so familiar, but the voice… that was Sora.
And the girl was Kairi. And the other…
He faded in and out, disappearing for a moment before snapping back in place, brown hair and all. The blond was gone and none of them notice.
The entire room sudden shifted. Blue skies and sandy beaches were replaced with stark and silver, towering walls shooting up around him as the sand melted into the cold, hard floor. A balcony slowly grew out, the railing curling up under the red-head's hand. She smiled, relieved, as the brown-haired boy approached the man in the black cloak, hesitantly picking up his hand.
"… Riku?" The man in black flinched away but the brunet clung tightly, his expression crumbling as he collapsed to his knees. "R-riku… I thought… I looked for you everywhere..."
"I don't understand," Riku murmured, taking a stumbling step back as realization began to set in. Sora, Sora was…
Before the thought could fully form everything vanished again, leaving him alone in the empty bedroom. There was no sign that Roxas, no sign that anyone had ever been in the room save for a single slip of paper, folded neatly in half. He stared for a moment before stepping toward it and hesitantly picking it up.
Do you remember yet?
Scowling, he crumpled the paper before tossing it on the floor. The door creaked ominously behind him when the paper bounced on the ground and he glanced back, watching as it weaved back and forth before suddenly starting to slam shut. "No, no-!"
Rushing forward, Riku forced his arm out to stop the door from shutting. It slammed down on his arm and he winced, feeling the rough wood dig in right below his elbow. Ignoring the pain he grit his teeth and flexed, slowly pulling his arm back and forcing the door to open inch by inch to get enough room to wedge himself through. Foot jammed to keep it from slamming shut, he slowly weaseled out.
The moment he was in the hall it pulled out of his grasp, shutting with a loud 'bang'. Turning quickly Riku grabbed the handle, twisting and pulling, but the door was stuck fast. Frustrated, he gave it a solid kick, cursing under his breath. "Great. Now what am I supposed to do…"
The house creaked and sighed around him as the silver-haired man glanced up nervously. There was a heavy pause as everything seemed to settle for a moment, but just as he was turning to start back down the stairs a horrendous shriek ripped through the air. Trembling and shaking for a moment, the walls at the end of the hall suddenly collapsed, charcoaled remains standing before. Frozen in fear, Riku found himself unable to run as a cloud of ash and dust rolled toward him, ripping the plaster from the remaining walls and the carpet from the floor as it barreled down at him.
Raising his arms to protect his face, the man braced himself for a wave of heat or for the choking air as the cloud passed over him. For a moment he felt he could barely breathe as the air scorched his face, but it passed immediately and he lowered his arms, blinking slowly in confusion.
The air was crystal clear now, though the destruction had run a path through the entirety of the house. Sunlight was peeking through slates in the ceiling that hadn't been there before, slates that had been formed by the roof caving in. The light danced down, highlighting the stark black-and-white palette the house now had, and after a moment of staring blankly at the suddenly-transformed environment it hit him.
A fire. The house had been burned down, everything that was left now barely standing.
Stepping carefully, Riku winced as the fire-licked boards beneath his feet whined from his weight, bowing down as he crept back to the stairs. Fresh ash rubbed off the walls onto his fingers as he trailed a hand along it, using it as a brace. "What the hell…" He stared down the steps from the top, feeling his stomach clench at the thought of walking down the now-rickety wood. "What… there was a fire here. But there's no way…" I was here when it happened.
Surreal was no longer a word that would describe the situation; Riku no longer felt grounded in anything resembling reality. Normalcy implanted in the middle of a nightmare, a room that opened a window into his past, a house that crumbled before his eyes – there was no possible rational explanation besides that he was, or had, lost his mind. Or that this is all just one long nightmare. Maybe I never actually woke up this morning, or maybe when I fell and hit my head-
White noise erupted from a room below, the sound of static blaring on what had to be a TV, and Riku jumped in surprise. Extra weight now held on one leg, his right foot broke through the rotted step and his left knee gave out, leaving him half-crouched and suspended with one leg dangling. "Ah, ff…" Hissing from the pain, he inhaled deep before pushing off hard to pull out.
The wood surrounding his leg tore at the cloth and ripped into his thigh as Riku lost his balance and fell heavily down the remaining steps, landing in a heap at the bottom after crashing against the wall.
Pain was all he could process for a moment; blood was starting to seep out of the wound on his leg, soaking into his jeans as it trickled down his leg. Spreading out from the throbbing center point of his thigh was the ache from thumping down the steps, bumping and banging before being stopped by the wall, and the final touches were the faint but steady burns from the scalpel wound and the dog bite. All the wounds, all gained while wandering through the town…
"Are you okay?"
He squeezed his eyes shut, holding onto the darkness for a moment longer – if he couldn't see it it couldn't see him.
"I think he's starting to come to…"
"Call the ambulance anyway. He hit his head hard when he fell; you don't know what happened."
Just because it was their voices.
Whose voices? Kairi, Roxas – Sora?
"You always worry too much, Kairi."
"Better to worry then to let him suffer from brain damage."
"Think we'd even notice the difference?"
He couldn't hold onto the darkness anymore and Riku's eyes slid open. Yellow light filtered in and he stared out blearing, taking in the sight of the patterned floor ( linoleum, black and white, and diamond patterned ) and of two pairs of shoes. One set was white and the other black, matching the floor perfectly, and as the silver-haired man twisted his head around he found himself staring up at twin sets of blue eyes.
"Riku, are you okay?" Placing the phone down next to him, Kairi knelt on the ground beside him as the second figure stepped away, moving to grab a dustpan to clear away the broken shards of glass that were only inches from his head. "You fell hard and blacked out for a few minutes. You can move everything and you know who were are and who you are and all of that, right?"
"Are you holding up three fingers?" he joked, and she grinned.
"Very funny." Gripping his forearm, the redhead helped him into a sitting position. Riku groaned, placing a hand against his forehead; there was a sizeable lump growing under his palm that was throbbing with his heartbeat. "You should probably take some Tylenol and get some ice on that and lay down. A pretty crappy way to spend your vacation but… a break's still a break, right?"
"Believe me Kairi, this… is better than what I could hope for." He chuckled lowly as he stood, legs wobbling for a moment as he gathered his bearings. Stumbling, Riku caught himself mid-step and glanced down – the strange two-toned jeans had been replaced with the well-worn pair he had put on this morning, along with the same orange shirt. Everything… everything's the same…
Kairi placed a hand on his back to help him keep his balance, worry written on her expression, but he just grinned in response. "I had the most… twisted nightmare while I was out." Shuffling toward the stairs, Riku continued. "I… Silent Hill was this… weird ghost town. But not even that… it was filled with monsters. And we were…" He laughed, stopping at the foot to rest a hand on the railing. "There was this girl in white that kept on following me around. She was telling me to remember what happened three years ago, and… you and… and…"
"And who, Riku?"
For a moment he froze at the sound of her voice before closing his eyes. Riku could see her clearly, blond hair curling ever so neatly about pale as the red stain grew larger over her abdomen. No, please… I was so close… "I… I'm here. I'm home. Does it matter who?"
"Riku." Her tone was laced with sorrow and he bit back a sob, bit back a scream – it was supposed to have been just a terrible dream. "What happened three years ago?"
Something was crumbling and rendering around him and against his will Riku cracked his eyes open. He gasped, widened them, as the world ripped itself apart, walls and floors rapidly decaying and peeling away to reveal the rotted interior beneath. Even the clothing that he wore was torn apart, orange fading into yellow and black as fresh blood oozed back out, the wounds re-opening.
"No… no… damnit, no!"
I was there… Everything was done, everything was back to normal – damnit, no, this isn't fair!
Riku collapsed to his knees and slammed his fists to the ground, teeth grit hard as he seethed in anger. What happened three years ago and, more importantly, did he care? If he found out would anything change, would anything go back to how it was before, or was that just the carrot that was being dangled? The girl, the girl in white – she was familiar, so goddamned familiar – but she was lost on the fringes of his mind just like Roxas and just like Sora. Was she from three years ago too? Was he from three years ago? Did he come into their lives?
Is that what happened?
The sudden thought unnerved him and he shook his head, aware again of the static of the blaring TV. Mirroring his earlier actions he climbed unsteadily to his feet, wincing from the gash in his thigh as he started to limp toward the noise. It was coming from the den – or was what left of the den. No electricity, at least there hadn't been any before, but Riku was beyond the point of expecting coherency and something as simple as the basic laws of conservation to apply anymore. Who was to even say that going into the next room would lead into a part of the same house?
Everything was dark except for the flickering and blaring TV. It was showing nothing but snow and even that was hard to make out with the layer of dust covering the screen. The rest of the room was empty safe for a single couch positioned in front of the TV, but it was missing the cushions and the clothing had be chewed off, leaving hardly anything more than a skeletal frame behind.
Walking carefully up to the TV, Riku knelt down and wiped the screen off, allowing the light to shine out at its full intensity. Squinting a moment, he starting to rotate the dial in the upper right hand corner, watching and hoping for something with each click. Static, static, static-
"-Haha, Kairi, what are you-? Put the camera down!" The brunet laughed and lifted up his hand, trying to grab at the camera that was recording his image. He missed and shook his head, crossing his arms. "What are you expecting me to do? Riku would be better for this. … you already got him? He's going to be so pissed at you. The last thing we need are memories for later. I think we're going to remember this. … okay, um… hi, I'm… going to be graduating soon and… hurrah?" He shrugged. "I skipped a year because I am that good and I just want to say that… Tidus, Wakka, you two were some of the most useless friends a guy could ever have so thanks. I appreciated that. And Selphie, you're brain dead and that's refreshing, it's nice to know someone you're always going to be smarter then. Um, you're not going to see this and even if you do… Riku and I are going to off college and we're going to be long gone. See ya!" The image tilted down and started to shake as a female voice started to laugh.
After several seconds the image looped back on repeat, the jean-clad leg of the female jerking back and forth as the laugh churned to a pitched frenzy before the TV blinked off. Left alone in the darkness, Riku stared at the now-blank screen for several more seconds before nodding and turning; it all made sense now.
He knew what happened three years ago.